For those of you who don't need you horror movies to have big stars, name directors or anything much in the way of national publicity, Kaleidoscope and 4 Digital Aisia have announced a pair of titles for an August UK DVD release that might just be up your street, the not too enigmatically titled The Blackout and The Meat Grinder. Wonder what genre that one slots into.

The Blackout (USA 2009)

Los Angeles, Christmas Eve: a series of power outages, minor earth tremors and other strange events threaten to ruin the holidays, but when the residents of a suburban apartment block experience a sudden total blackout, they are determined to investigate. Deep in the cavernous basement they make a shocking discovery – what is seemingly the breeding ground of a new race of blood-thirsty creatures.

With it quickly becoming apparent that the frightening occurrences overtaking LA are connected, this group of rag-tag neighbours must put aside their differences and fight to save their city from an eternal blackness. With time running out and the murderous creatures just getting started, they know they must restore the power, as when the lights go out for good, the feeding will begin...

The Blackout will be released on UK DVD on 30th August 2010 by Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment at the RRP of £9.99. The only listed extra is a trailer.

Meat Grinder (Cheuuat gaawn chim – Thailand 2009)

Angling for cult status and borrowing just a little from Fruit Chan's 2004 Dumplings (Gaau ji), the over-the-top gorefest Meat Grinder stars Mai Charoenpura as a deranged woman who runs a noodle stall and is hearing voices in her head all the time. When she finds a dying man in her stall one night, she gets the idea to chop him up and grind the body parts into meatballs as ingredients for her noodle soup. It turns out to be a popular dish, and as the stall gets more and more business, she must find a steady supply of fresh human meat to feed her customers...

Meat Grinder will be released on UK DVD on 23rd August 2010 by 4 Digital Asia at the RRP of £15.99. Extras will include the orginal trailer and a making-of documentary.